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Showing posts from 2016

Sous Vide Beef Roast

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Lots of work travel, but I finally got a weekend at home and managed to whip up something to take to work during the week. Marinade: salt, pepper, red chili flake, misc "italian seasoning blend" Sous Vide temp: 134F (56.6C) Time: 6 Hours Came out super tender, a tad salty. Yum. More to come.

Travel

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Work travel to Singapore, Clarke Quay I've got a post about a miso and tofu class but have been so busy traveling (work and fun) there's just been no time. Anyhow, I've put up a new blog where I can dump in pictures from the places I'm visiting where it's not all about food. It's going to be more pictures than words. I put up my last trip to the Hunter Valley a few weeks ago. www.ironjack.com

My Food Bag

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So, a friend of mine had a free week to give away for me to try out My Food Bag . They are in both Australia and New Zealand I know there are similar services in the US.  The high level idea is that they deliver a box (or boxes) of groceries that have been pre-portioned and partially prepped with a series of recipes. It saves you a trip to the grocery store and simplifies meal preparation which is nice after a hard day at work. I really love the process, you pick your box type: classic, family, gourmet, or own (single diner) on the website, and they send you a mail and follow up text on when they will delivery and it just shows up. You get another email during the week to let you know the recipes so you can read through and buy any staples you might be out of. This box is four meals for two people (the different boxes feed different amounts). Disclaimer: this was provided free for me, but no one asked me to post anything, it's just my honest impression of the service...

Sous vide lamb chops

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Just threw together this quick lunchbox for tomorrow. Sous vide rack of lamb: Fresh chopped rosemary, thyme and oregano cooked at 134F (56C) for four hours. Accompanied with Sauteed mushrooms (button and golden needle), garlic spinach and zoodles with tomato sauce.

Microwave and Mugs: brunch in a box

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So this paleo/gluten-free friendly mug bread has been making the rounds on facebook recently. Mug/microwave cooking has been around for a bit but people have gotten pretty creative over the years. I mentioned that I should created a bento box out of mug items made in a microwave. Since it's a rainy crappy day outside I decided to play in the kitchen. The microwave is a surprisingly versatile piece of equipment. I usually use it to reheat items (never to my satisfaction). There's some debate what the nuke box does to nutrients, some say it preserves them, other say they get nuked to death. All the supporting scientifically measured evidence I've read seems to support the former. Anyhow, that's not the subject of this post, the challenge: make a bento box around items you make in a mug and a microwave. I settled on brunch because it's probably the easiest thing to do because eggs are easy and most every other recipe out there sort of dessert or cake so brunch i...

Korean Beef Short rib over Zoodles

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As usual it's been a busy work season, but that really hasn't prevented me from cooking. In fact I've been doing a lot of cooking over the last few months and I have a pretty big backlog of posts to put up, just no time to post. We've been doing a lot of paleo cooking, it's had modest results on the waistline but done wonders in terms of saving money. Living in a big city it's often easier to walk down the street to grab some food than to buy a ton of groceries and prepare it yourself (especially after a long day at work). I try my best to do a lot of cooking over the weekend but there's only so much leftover I can take. First world problems, I know. Anyways, I saw this Slow cooker Korean Grass fed short rib from Nom Nom paleo (they modded it from America's Test Kitchen), and as you know I'm a big fan of using the slow cooker so I wasn't going to pass it up.  I couldn't get grass fed beef or some of the paleo friendly sauces but I wa...

TRIP: Memorable meals in Tokyo (2/2)

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Finally getting around to posting our second fabulous meal in Tokyo. We met another friend for lunch near in the Ginza area. She suggested Aya and booked us a seat for an Omakase lunch.  We had a little trouble finding the rest aurant, as you can see the front door is a little tucked into the building and just like the other place you probably wouldn’t have thought the door lead to a restaurant. Inside the restaurant sat a total of eight people. The Chef worked in the center and as you can see there was a wall of beautiful dishes that he plated his creations, the space was very efficiently used. There were two waitstaff that assisted with bringing out things from the back as well as tending to your needs. I really like this style of eating, you feel very close to the restaurant and the people designing the wonderful food and ambiance that you are enjoying. Although the chef didn’t speak much english between ingredients and words I was familiar with (and gestures) ...

TRIP: Kyoto

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In the middle of our trip we took a four day excursion to Kyoto. The city once was the capital of Japan until the Emperor relocated the capital to Tokyo. Kyoto is a very different city compared to Tokyo, it has a fraction of the population (1.5 million) and as a result is not nearly as busy. Kyoto is known for old architectural buildings as well as lots and lots of temples and shrines. We passed Mt. Fuji while on the bullet train. Kyoto Tower (it's more impressive at night) We only had two solid days in the city since the first and fourth days were consumed with travel. Riding the Shinkansen (Bullet train) it took us 2.5 hours to get to Tokyo not bad for covering 320 miles. Kyoto train station is every bit as large as Tokyo's. It's got at least two department stores and a hotel attached to it with a huge variety of restaurants. This picture really doesn't cover it, I just liked the roof structure. We stayed near the station at an older hotel, the K...